Arai and Katsuta impress on R5 debut with a convincing overall result at the Enset Oy SM-ralli
Takamoto Katsuta and Hiroki Arai, two young rally drivers are receiving ongoing training under the Toyota GAZOO Racing Challenge Program with a strong cooperation of Tommi Mäkinen Racing. Both participated in the fourth round of the Finnish Rally Championship, the Enset Oy SM-ralli, driven last weekend in the Sastamala area in Western Finland. The rally was a new addition into the championship with all new roads being used for the event. This levelled the playing field, as all the drivers had to make new pacenotes for the rally. This benefitted the young and new drivers such as Arai and Katsuta.
Even more significant for Arai and Katsuta was the fact that this was their debut rally in the SM1 class and more powerful R5-cars. They entered the rally with Ford Fiesta R5's, advancing from the R4 production cars into full-blooded rally-machines. Tommi Mäkinen Racing, the driving force behind the Toyota GAZOO Racing Rally Challenge Program, did a thorough job in getting Arai and Katsuta familiarized with the new car before the rally in Sastamala. This included four days of testing and training to give the drivers a good introduction to their new rally cars.
It was a big step, but the rally showed that they really were ready. Hiroki Arai amazed the entire Finnish rally scene by setting the fastest time on the 14.26-kilometer-long opening stage of the rally with his Ford Fiesta R5. Arai's fairly slim experience in competitions still did bring out some easy mistakes, such as spins, which cost him some valuable seconds.
Despite the small mistakes, Arai continued his good form for six special stages, keeping up with the top runners. To his misfortune however, he was forced to retire from third place overall due to a technical failure. As they departed the service after SS6 the electronic power steering of his car failed and it was not possible to continue the rally without it. After such a strong start, Arai was understandably disappointed at having to retire but was encouraged for the future. “It was very unlucky to have the machine trouble, but thanks to the team I could achieve quite good result until SS6. There are still lots of things for me to work on, in particular, my pacenotes, and my driving in medium and slow speed corners. If I can improve those points, then I will be more consistent and can fight for more stage wins” said Arai.
Takamoto Katsuta performed in the rally as planned. He started off calmly, picking up his pace as the competition advanced. Katsuta, who moved into rallying from the formula tracks, got to drive "in his element" on the final special stage of the Enset Oy SM-ralli. SS9 was 8.34 kilometers long and almost half of it was tarmac. Katsuta did not waste this opportunity to use his experience and showed his speed by setting the fastest time on the stage. Katsuta would go on to finish 9th in class and 10th overall. Katsuta commented, “It was my first rally in an R5 car and also the first gravel rally since last autumn, so I started out driving cautiously, checking my pacenotes and getting the feeling for the car. Finally on the last stage, I could put it all together and had a great result by winning the stage.”
Jouni Ampuja, chief instructor of the programme was pleased with the performance of his protégés, and with good reason.
In this event the drivers got a proper feel of the cars with good competition mileage and a lot of ideas how to enhance their performance in driving and most importantly in making the pace notes. Now it is good to proceed to our next rally, which is Rally Estonia, 15 - 17 July, which is the Estonian round of the FIA European Rally Championship, ERC.
The Enset Oy SM-ralli was won by Norway's Ole Christian Veiby with a Skoda Fabia R5. Second overall was the many times Finnish champion Juha Salo with Peugeot 208 R5 and finishing third was the Group N winner Teemu Asunmaa with Subaru Impreza WRX Sti R4. The one-day Enset Oy SM-ralli consisted of 9 special stages with the total SS distance of 119.6 kilometers. The total length of the route was 262.58 kilometers, and the rally was run in sunny summer conditions.
